The federal government has dropped all charges against a Washington medical marijuana patient who was recently diagnosed with late-stage cancer, in a high-profile case that involves the patient and his family growing medical cannabis at their home.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice dismissed multiple federal marijuana charges against 71-year-old Larry Harvey because of his deteriorating health brought on by stage 4 cancer of the pancreas, which has begun to spread to his liver.

But Harvey's reprieve remains bittersweet. His family members, who were charged along with him, still collectively face the possibility of decades in prison.

"I'm thankful the charges against me have been dropped so that I can focus on my battle with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer," Harvey said in a statement. "However, if the Department of Justice truly has concerns for my well being, it will dismiss the case against my entire family. I thought the law passed by Congress and signed by President Obama was supposed to stop the DOJ from prosecuting my family, but so far, there's been little relief."

Had Harvey been convicted, he faced at least 10 years behind bars, but he may not have lived long enough to see prison, let alone serve out his sentence. The average life expectancy for a patient with metastatic pancreatic cancer is three to six months. He recently told The Huffington Post that going to prison would be a "death sentence" for him.

Harvey has a difficult battle with cancer ahead, but worries how he will fare if his family is sentenced in the case.

"My wife, Rhonda, is my sole caregiver," Harvey said Thursday. "She cooks meals for me and makes sure I take all my medicines on time. She's even been using our tractor to do all of the property upkeep herself, since I am too sick to do it anymore. If Rhonda goes to prison, I don't know who will take care of me. I will probably have to leave our home for good and move into a nursing facility."

Harvey -- along with his wife; their son and daughter-in-law, Rolland and Michelle Gregg; and family friend Jason Zucker -- grew marijuana on the property of their rural Washington home, for what they say was their own medical use. The family has maintained that its pot patch was in compliance with state law. (Washington state legalized medical marijuana in 1998.) But in 2012, state and federal law enforcers raided the Harvey home and shut down their operation.

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RICHMOND – Two types of medical marijuana extracts would be legal to possess and recommend for epilepsy treatment in Virginia under legislation passed by the state Senate on Wednesday and sent to the governor for his signature.

The Senate voted 37-1 in favor of HB 1445, which would allow Virginians suffering from epileptic seizures relief in the form of Cannabidiol oil and THC-A oil, two marijuana derivatives.

House Majority Leader Tommy Norment, R-Williamsburg, urged passage of the bill. He said it would provide an “affirmative defense” for sufferers of intractable epilepsy. This means that if patients happened to be arrested and charged with possession of marijuana, they could produce their certificate to the courts at least 10 days before trial and walk without any charges.

A question was raised on the Senate floor about the difference between a prescription for marijuana and a recommendation, because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved such medical marijuana treatments. But Norment pointed out that the bill refers specifically to recommendations and certifications from doctors rather than a prescription.

The oils, like THC-A, reportedly have anti-inflammatory qualities, among other healing properties, but without the same psychoactive effects as THC.

HB 1445 was sponsored by Del. Dave Albo, R-Springfield. The House had unanimously passed the bill on Feb. 10.

Sen. Dave Marsden, D-Burke, sponsored an identical companion bill – SB 1235. It also has been approved overwhelmingly by both the Senate and House.

The two bills now travel to Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s desk for his approval.

If the governor signs the legislation, Virginia would join a national trend. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have enacted various medical marijuana or decriminalization laws – and four have outright legalized recreational marijuana.

As of yesterday at 10 am, Oregon has a new Governor. Kate Brown became Oregon’s Governor after John Kitzhaber was forced to resign amid a lot of controversy. It was a sad day for Oregon, but from a purely marijuana activist standpoint, I wasn’t too sad to see Kitzhaber step down. During the 2014 Election Oregon voters approved Oregon Measure 91, which was very well written and had specific provisions included. For some reason former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber didn’t think those provisions mattered, and for that matter the will of Oregon voters didn’t matter, because he was seeking to alter the initiative drastically before it was implemented.

John Kitzhaber wanted to merge the medical marijuana program in Oregon with the recreational program, which was something the initiative was very specific about, and stated no less than three times in the initiative that the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program would be unaffected by Measure 91. It’s a big provision that resulted in a lot of people voting for the initiative that were on the fence about it. Kitzhaber also wanted to reduce the possession limit in the initiative. I, along with all of the other ‘yes’ votes, voted for Measure 91 because it allowed certain possession limits.

John Kitzhaber and others at the Oregon capital tried to make it sound like voters approved marijuana legalization in general, and didn’t care about the details. That couldn’t be further from the truth, proven by the fact that the same Oregon voters rejected a marijuana legalization initiative in 2012 because it was poorly written without possession limits. We didn’t vote on marijuana legalization in general, we voted for marijuana legalization because it was a well crafted initiative that had provisions we liked.

So how will Oregon’s new Governor approach the marijuana legalization rule making process? Kate Brown is progressive on a lot of things, but there is at least one time in her career that she cracked down hard on marijuana reform, which could provide some insight into how she will view marijuana policy now that she is Governor. During the 2012 Election in Oregon, during which a marijuana legalization initiative made the ballot (Measure 80), there was another, better initiative trying to get on the ballot. Initiative 24 was a campaign that I was helping with. It had solid funding – the same funding source that Oregon’s successful medical marijuana initiative from 1998 was built on. The initiative was gathering more signatures than Measure 80, and polled better.

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